Reed and Hank -- Sharing Spaces

[xp-fantastic.livejournal.com]

Reed explores and predictably, heads straight for the labs where he meets a very eager lab partner.

It wasn't that Reed was unused to sharing laboratory space. After all, at Stormtech, there were many other lab technicians, scientists and inventors working away in a communal laboratory.

It was just that he was used to having complete and utter say to how the lab run. There was a hierarchy and he was always at the top of it. Now, as he entered the lab, he was surprised to see how much was really down there. He hadn't asked the Xavier fellow how it worked, and Sue hadn't seemed to bother explaining the system either.

Looking around the room, he sighed loudly. This wouldn't do at all. He saw a younger looking man in the room, and Reed tried to get his attention by coughing loudly. "Are you in charge?," he asked. "I have questions."

Hank glanced up from his work, blinking somewhat owlishly at the man who had addressed him. "I, um, I don't know if I'd qualify as 'in charge'," he said, reaching to push his glasses back up his nose (they always slipped down when he was doing labwork). "But I'd be happy to help if I can."

That was good enough. "I'm Dr. Reed Richards. I was told I could use space here, but I want to ensure I'm not dramatically altering the landscape or hindering someone's scientific endeavours." Reed motioned to a cluttered workspace. "I'd also like to have a better sense of what kind of lab this really is. I can be flexible, but I'd rather not expose anyone to something biochemical if this is intended to be a technological space."

"Oh, it's definitely biological - wait, did you say Dr Richards? Reed Richards?" Abruptly Hank stood, nearly overturning his stool in his haste. "It's an honour to meet you, sir. I didn't know you were joining us, I would've made sure there was some space still available..."

Reed watched Hank in a detached sense. Over excitement hardly seemed necessary...although, he didn't blame the young man for it. "No need for theatrics," he said calmly, reaching out a hand. "We are going to be colleagues here in this space, so it's important that we get on the same page as soon as possible. Equal respect and honour in the lab, Mr...?"

"Coy. I mean McCoy," Hank stuttered. "Or just Hank. Henry. Whatever you want to call me, really." He wiped his overlarge hands on his trousers and then took Reed's to shake, grinning like an idiot.

Reed gave back a smile of his own, trying to remember what Sue had said about being friendly. Had he been friendly before? It was hard for him to notice social cues at times. Shaking Hank's hand, he noticed the size of it, and immediately turned it over. "Physical mutation?"

Hank blanched; not that Reed noticed (or cared). "Er, yes, well noticed..." He gave an awkward chuckle and tried to extract his hand from Reed's grasp. "So, ah, I thought you were working at StormTech, what are you... I mean, you must have excellent facilities there, unless... oh, you haven't been fired, have you? That's a terrible shame, your work on synthetic polymers was truly inspired."

Reed barely heard Hank's rambling, oblivious to the younger man's obvious discomfort. "Is it simply growth or is there an added physiological property? So much of lab work is delicate but if you're here, you've found ways around that, haven't you? Interesting. Oh," he added suddenly, almost as if the previous sentences were his own internal dialogue. "And I'm still with Stormtech. I ‎needed a place to stay. Landlords don't appreciate my certain brand of genius."

"Oh. That's good." Hank considered just not answering Reed's (rather intrusive) questions, but he figured that the other man seemed like the type to grab hold of an interesting idea and not let go. He just wasn't sure how he liked being the 'interesting idea'. "I have increased strength and speed, generally, and my reflexes and agility have improved as well. Despite the size of my digits my dexterity has not suffered too badly, and as you say it's simple enough to find work-arounds for truly fine work."

"I repeat -- interesting." And it was. But only in a mildly kind of way that meant he would remember this conversation later at a random, inopportune time, but at the moment, it had little to do with him. "Right. So, tell me -- what are your credentials? Are you working on anything at the moment? I find myself at that strange place where one project has ended and nothing has quite inspired me yet. Perhaps I can assist you at the moment?"

Reed Richards was offering to assist him? For a moment Hank blinked, starstruck, before he realised the silence was stretching out. "I'm, um, working on isolating transcriptional factors in order to test the mechanism of nuclear seclusion as a way of altering gene expression during cell development. It's still early stages, really, and it's mostly grunt work at the moment..."

Reed nodded. "Laymen will never understand the sheer amount of tedium that comes with nuclear physics and then when biology is thrown in..." He shook his head. "So from what you're telling me, I think I can safely assume the gene expression you're referring to is in regards to the x-gene?"

"Well, potentially at some point it may be applicable, but given our understanding of the x-gene and its expression is rudimentary at best I'd say this is still quite a ways off from being applied. I was thinking of starting with something simpler first."

Reed shook his head. "‎At the risk of sounding pedantic and contrived, we should always shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars. There's nothing wrong with starting big and failing. When we work within a microsystem, it is far too easy to get lost in the minutia and forget the larger picture. I always enjoy starting with the impossible, turning it into the improbable before finishing with eureka."

Hank found himself grinning at this; he wanted to shoot for the moon but it still felt rather presumptuous to do so. After all, who was he? Just a college freshman with a little experience and a curious mind. But if Reed Richards said to start with the impossible, well...

"You're absolutely right, of course. I have some very embryonic research on the x-gene conducted from my time at Strand Labs, I suppose I could bring it in and run the isolations in tandem..." He trailed off as he began to ponder, tapping his fingers distractedly on the bench in front of him.

Reed grinned. Now that sounded like a challenge. This way, they could do several experiments with minimal variables to see how the reactions worked on their own before introducing more to the mix. "Wonderful!," he exclaimed, clapping a hand on Hank's back. "And as mentioned before, I'm more than happy to help set things up."

"All right, well, let me show you what I've done so far..."